1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to stone masonry, and in particular to the construction of stone surfaces and corners using veneer stone.
2. Background Description
Formerly stone is laid as a structural component or as an aesthetic cladding or veneer on houses, buildings, walls, chimneys and as paving or flooring.
Stone comes in different types: thin stone one-half inch to three inches thick that is either a field stone or is quarried and split to the appropriate size; and building stone, which is a three inch to nine inch thick stone that is either a field stone or is quarried and split to the appropriate size. Thin stone and building stone are generally the same stone except for their different thicknesses.
There are many other types of stone: flag stone, granite, marble, dimensional stone that typically comes in thin panels flat or polished. Also there are boulders and edging, none of which are of concern to the present invention. Only thin stone and building stone are of concern to the present invention.
The advantages and disadvantages of thin stone are as follows. Thin stone is inexpensive to buy, easy and inexpensive to lay, and easy and inexpensive to transport. However, thin stone leaves an unsightly joint on the outside corners of the wall, house, building or whatever is being laid. At the outside corners, the thickness of the stone can be readily ascertained because the thin edge of the stone is visible, which shatters the illusion of a thick (4 inch to 9 inch) stone cladding most preferred by customers. It should be noted that inside corners are not a problem, because the thin edges do not show and there is no difference in the appearance between building stone and thin stone. The difficulty is with the external corner.
There are two inadequate solutions in the prior art. First, building stone is laid instead of thin stone, which solves the problem of unsightly corners of thin stone. The down side of building stone is it""s expensive to buy, hard and expensive to lay, and heavy and expensive to transport.
Second, culture or imitation stone may be used to provide an illusion of thick stone at the corners. Culture stone is made of poured and cast concrete to which is applied a thin cladding layer of simulated rock on the front and edges. Culture stone comes in a two part system. Flat stones (xc2xd inch to 3 inch thick) laid on the wall surface and corner pieces shaped like a 90 degree xe2x80x9cLxe2x80x9d (xc2xd inch to 3 inches thick) laid on the corners of the wall. Laid together, these surface and corner pieces give the illusion of thick stone, but it is light in weight compared to thick stone and it has the easy laying character of thin stone.
The drawbacks to this solution are as follows: culture stone costs as much per square foot of surface area as thick building stone. Culture stone can""t be cleaned with commercial acid based masonry cleaners to remove mortar stains, as this would corrode the xe2x80x9cstonexe2x80x9d appearance and void the warranty. Culture stone can""t be used in constant contact with water (ponds, swimming pools and the like), unlike real stone. Furthermore, culture stone doesn""t lend itself to fit and finish as well as thin stone. Typically, thin stone is trimmed a bit with a hammer and/or flipped over to fit in various spots in a wall. FIG. 2A shows a thin stone 200 with edges 210. Trimming the thin stone 200 reveals a new edge 220, which has the same texture and attributes as the stone itself. Culture stone trimmed up exposes the unsightly inside of the piece since the stone look of the piece is provided by a thin coating. Culture stone can""t be flipped over to fit a space since the coating is only on the front. FIG. 2B shows a culture stone 250 with edges 260. Trimming the culture stone 250 reveals a new edge 270, which does not have the cladding of edges 260. Instead, the edge 270 shows a cladding layer 275 (not shown to scale) formed over concrete 280.
It is to be noted that another potential solution is not workable. Culture stone corners cannot be used with thin stone walls because the texture of the culture stone cladding is noticeably different from thin stone, and makes the corners unsightly on that account.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a way of constructing outside corner stones for veneer stone surfaces which hide the seams which appear when thin stone veneer is used at the corners.
Another object of the invention is to provide for efficient use of building stone by making two outside corner stones from a single building stone.
The invention is implemented as follows. On a typical wall utilize thin stone to lay the field of the wall. Then cut 90 degree corners out of building stone squares and rectangles so as to leave a corner piece xc2xd inch to 3 inch thick to match the thickness of the thin stone on the field of the wall. Lay these on the corners of the wall. This will give the illusion of a thick building stone wall with nearly the low cost and easy laying of thin stone; the wall with these corner pieces costs much less than a wall laid with culture stone, and is nearly as light.
In one embodiment, the method of the invention constructs non-seamed stone corners for first and second thin stone walls of thickness T1 and T2, respectively, joined at right angles at an external edge, by selecting a building stone having a height H, a depth D and a width W, the building stone having top and bottom surfaces H1 and H2, respectively, front and back surfaces D1 and D2, respectively, and left and right surfaces W1 and W2, respectively. Then a first cut is made in the selected building stone, the plane of the first cut being parallel to the plane of surface W1 and extending to a uniform depth from surface H1, such that the distance between the plane of the first cut and the plane of surface W1 is T1, and such that the uniform depth is equal to (Hxe2x88x92T2). Then a second cut is made in the building stone, the plane of the second cut being parallel to the plane of surface H1 and extending to a second uniform depth from surface W2, such that the distance between the plane of the second cut and the plane of surface H2 is T2, and such that the second uniform depth is equal to (Wxe2x88x92T1).
These two cuts separate from the building stone a residual piece, leaving a corner stone. In a further embodiment of the invention, the residual piece is large enough for use in making a second corner stone. The residual piece is re-oriented as a workpiece so that neither the left surface nor the bottom surface is formed by either the first cut or the second cut, since the left and bottom surfaces (as viewed in preparation for the initial cut) will show on the corner and should be a natural stone surface rather than a saw cut surface. Three such re-orientations are possible. After such re-orientation, the residual piece will have a height Hxe2x80x2, a width Wxe2x80x2 and a depth Dxe2x80x2. The residual piece will also have top and bottom surfaces Hxe2x80x21 and Hxe2x80x22, respectively, left and right surfaces Wxe2x80x21 and Wxe2x80x22 respectively, and front and back surfaces Dxe2x80x21 and Dxe2x80x22, respectively. Essentially the same method used to create the first corner stone is then used upon the re-oriented residual piece to create a second corner stone. A third cut is made in the residual piece, the plane of the third cut being parallel to the plane of surface Wxe2x80x21 and extending to a third uniform depth from surface Hxe2x80x21, such that the distance between the plane of the third cut and the plane of surface Wxe2x80x21 is T1, and such that the third uniform depth is equal to (Hxe2x80x2xe2x88x92T2). A fourth cut is made in the residual piece, the plane of the fourth cut being parallel to the plane of surface Hxe2x80x21 and extending to a fourth uniform depth from surface Wxe2x80x22, such that the distance between the plane of the fourth cut and the plane of surface Hxe2x80x22 is T2, and such that the fourth uniform depth is equal to (Wxe2x80x2xe2x88x92T1).